News Brief

RESOLUTION DESIGNED TO AGGRAVATE MIDEAST SITUATION, TEKOAH CHARGES

In a statement following the balloting, Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, of Israel bitterly attacked the Somalia resolution. He said its text was “born of belligerence against a state member of the UN.” He said it was sponsored by “delegations almost all of which deny Israeli’s right to sovereignty or do not recognize Israel.” It was a draft, he said, “not motivated as were the other two by a desire to alleviate the plight of refugees. Its purpose was clearly to aggravate and complicate the Middle East conflict.”

Mr. Tekoah said the General Assembly action “confirms the generally held view that Israel’s rights or interests cannot be secured in discussions and votes by others whether within the General Assembly and Security Council or by the Two Powers or Four Powers. In such discussions, considerations extraneous to the merits of the situation not only tend to frustrate equitable conclusions insuring Israel’s rights under the UN Charter, but even to prevent as in the present instance the defeat of proposals regarded by the majority of states as unacceptable and damaging.”

He declared that, “for Israel the conclusion is therefore clear–the settlement of the Middle East conflict, the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the area, the securing for all nations of their right to live free from aggression and violence will come, not from what others do, but through Israel’s efforts to defend its rights and to seek together with its neighbors understanding and agreement.”

Mr. Tekoah concluded that “it is not through public and acrimonious debates, it is not through discussions conducted through outside powers, but through patient and temperate dialogue between Israel and the Arab states that peace will be attained in the Middle East.”